Machines for folding sheets of material are used to form stacks of folded product such as napkins, facial tissues, hand wipes, etc. The folded sheets may be interfolded such that when a stack is placed in a dispenser, when one sheet is removed a panel of the next sheet to be used is automatically extracted from the dispenser so that it can be grasped by a user.
To provide this interfolded arrangement, consecutive sheets must be overlapped as they are folded. Historically, this was done by supply two sheet streams formed by separate cutting arrangement that were out of phase equal to the desired amount of overlap. Unfortunately, these systems were extremely complex and required redundant components such as multiple cutting arrangements.
The complexity of the systems and multiple rolls in the system increased costs for the machines and maintenance as well as increased the opportunity for breakdowns. Further, the large number of rolls through which the sheets would travel could affect surface features of the sheets such as embossing.
The present invention relates to improvements over the current state of the art in folding machines and particularly in folding machines for interfolding adjacent sheets within a stack of product.